Does anybody know anything about the 'catering disruption' today at LHR and what they're planning to do for long haul flights? Apparently staff at Gate Gourmet has gone on unofficial industrial action.

Gate Gourmet is planning to make roughly 700 redundant following losing the catering contract for Virgin Atlantic. Today, several hundred new staff started work to 'help with the summer rush', but the intention appears to be to sack the 700 in a few weeks' time once the new team has been trained up. Their purpose is actually to cover in case of the anticipated industrial action.

Sounds plotted... they needed to get rid of this lot after using the Virgin contract. A strike has been anticipated for ages as you can tell by the huge increases in security. This gave them the perfect excuse.

We only heard of this half way thru the afternoon when a message came on the boards looking for overtime today and in the morning. Then we got told to look at our comms policy page and ba.com where it told us what was goingon. Poor passengers is all i can say. There was not much i could say to em except buy food and take it. God knows what the First passengers are goin to think. Had 1 call. All i could say was we cant do anything. They striked with no warning, and have left us with little chance. We either send the planes, or cancel them. Sending is a lot cheaper, but i havea feeling customer realtions are goin to get very very busy in the next couple of days

Have a feeling it will be more busy tomorrow as its meant to effect some morning, lunchtime departures as well. I dont start till 1345 though so might miss most of the rush.

Man it was a nightmare in T4 today!! There were lines coming out of every restaurant and shop. Eventually restaurants ran out of food so people moved onto WH Smith and Boots to buy as many packets of crisps as they could. Was really hard to calm people down as well.

Trekster your lucky you start at 1345, i'll be there in 6 hrs starting at 0545!!

I just got an email from BA executive club saying that all flights flying out of and INTO LHR on 11 Aug will have no catering. I am flying SIN - LHR tonight and just phoned BA who confirmed that there will be no catering on the flight. To be honest i'm pretty dissapointed with BA, I pay my money and expect a certain level of service, especially on a 13hr flight. I'm gonna stock pile pringles or something......

So I phone the number for Singapore Executive Club contact (which sounds suspiciously like the call is routed to Australia). They havent heard anything about it and I get put on hold for a few minutes. They then tell me there won't be any catering on the SIN - LHR flight tonight. For a "second opinion" I phone the local BA office in Singapore who say there will be catering on the flight. I'm still going to stock pile pringles just incase

Quoting Zarniwoop (Reply 8):To be honest i'm pretty dissapointed with BA, I pay my money and expect a certain level of service

Please note that the catering firm is affected by industrial action that occurred with no notification to BA and so there was nothing that BA could have done to immediately solve the problem it was handed. BA has been trying to handle this situation as best as possible, but it isn't just a case of calling another catering firm and having approximately 300 flights serviced. Thankfully most passengers have and will continue to understand that there was nothing BA could do.

Hi Speedbird2155
I understand that it is not BA's fault. (BTW, BA called me to confirm that there will not be any catering, just water)
I do, however have 2 points.
1) I got the email telling me about the problem at 3:37am, the flight is a 23:55. That is enough time to put some sort of contingency in place rather than just handing out meal vouchers before the flight.
2) The strike is at LHR, my flight is leaving SIN, so how come my flight is affected?

Quoting Zarniwoop (Reply 12):1) I got the email telling me about the problem at 3:37am, the flight is a 23:55. That is enough time to put some sort of contingency in place rather than just handing out meal vouchers before the fligh

I dont know why/how catering from other countries is getting involved, but i do know that having to suddenly get catering for god knows how many flights/passengers is not that easy. You cant just call another catering firm as there is no way they will have that much spare food and still be able to cope with delivering to there own airlines. We all know what can happen sometimes. Food not delivered etc etc etc.

This could happen to any airline that contracts out the work.

BA had no say adn no warning in what has happend, and has been left in the doghouse for something that could not be stopped. BA will get the blame for it from passengers, but there is nothing that can be done. All that can be done is what has been done. They were even trying to get off duty staff in to the airports to help hand out food in the departure areas. BA seems to be handling this in the best possable way. Dont have a go at the airline. Its Gategourmet u should shout at

Why can't BA use the catering of other stations for flights out of LHR. A LHR-CDG-LHR-BRU-LHR flight could order more food at CDG to cater the remaining flights of the day (I talk here about a minimum service)?

Quote:The airline said it was offering customers -- boarding flights to destinations in North America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Australia -- the choice of accepting a refund, rebooking for another day or having a meal before departing. Buffets were set up in departure lounges and passengers were offered vouchers to purchase food at the airport.

As someone else mentioned, I was offered the chance to re-book but I have no choice as I have to be at a wedding this weekend. I also appreciate the local BA office calling me back to explain exactly what the situation is.
You would expect that BA would be seeking compensation from GG, so lets hope some of that gets passed down to customers...
I will do a trip report to give you a glance into the future of what a Ryanair long haul flight will be like

The picture sums up the enormity of catering numerous very large aircraft every day. The picture caption says:- 'A typical Boeing 747 uplift of 28,000 items, all checked and packed for delivery to aircraft'

It is not only the food that has to be supplied to each aircraft, it is all the ancilliary equipment that goes along with it.

If the 28,000 items are not loaded, then the catering stations down route will soon run out of equipment to exchange and cater for their next aircraft.

Likewise, if there are no catering vehicles available for arrivals at LHR, then any used inbound catering and equipment will not be able to be offloaded!

Small European stations will not have such equipment, not only quantity, but also the specialised large aircraft stowages.

I would like to be afly on the wall when the stewardess tells one of these snobs in first class who think the world spinns around them: "Sorry Sir only first class water today".... that will be fun for BA....

Does anybody know whether BMED and GB Airways (obviously only the LHR flights) are affected? Yesterday it said on the BA website that BMED flights had catering as usual. - Also - how long do you think it is likely to go on for - surely BA must have longer term plans in the instance GG staff don't return to work.

25 EurofleetLHR
: As BMed are a franchise carroer, they do not have to use the same catering company as mainline BA (I'm sure they use a different one to Gate Gourmet).

26 Bkkair
: CV747 Regarding your post about the "snobs in First Class", don't forget that the outrageous fares the "snobs in First Class" (and Business Class) are